Area Attacks

Duration

Miscellaneous

Introduced

Overcome with Infestation, this bow's arrows now spread poisonous contagion to any surface they hit.

The Mutalist Cernos is an InfestedCernos, lowering critical chance for an increase in status chance. In addition, immediately after an arrow hits a surface, a spore will be summoned from above and hit that spot, creating a low damage toxin cloud with a high chance of dealing Toxin damage and proc as well as a chance to proc the weapon's elemental damage.

The bow actually fires two projectiles, the first being the arrow and the second, which is shot slightly afterwards, being the Toxic AoE. The toxic spore will follow the arrow when impacted and as such, enemies knocked backed and killed by the arrow will result in the spore tracking the dead body and creating the cloud somewhere near where the body lay.

On hitting an enemy or an object, the Mutalist Cernos's spore will create a small Toxin cloud that deals damage and status effects to any enemy within its radius. This cloud lasts for 10 seconds.

The spore cloud deals 5 Toxin damage per second modified by any base damage and elemental damage mods installed on the weapon.

The cloud's primary damage is of the same damage type(s) as the elements installed on the weapon, with the innate toxin damage combining with them last, similarly to other pure elemental weapons.

Each tick from the cloud has a 100% chance to proc a Toxin DoT with each stack displayed separately to the cloud's larger primary damage ticks. There's also an additional chance with each primary damage tick to proc an installed elemental status effect.

The forced toxin proc DoT is calculated as normal; 50% of the spore's base damage adjusted by base damage mods. Unmodified this is 2.5 Toxin damage per second stacks (displayed rounded down) in addition to the cloud's primary damage ticks. Since toxin procs last 8 seconds, and the proc is refreshed every second of the 10 second cloud duration, the toxin DoT will last a maximum of 18 seconds from the initial spore cloud damage tick.

Since the spore cloud base damage is pure toxin a special case exists where increasing the toxin damage of the Mutalist Cernos, by adding Infected Clip for example, counts as a base damage increase for the toxin proc damage calculation, whether or not it is combined with other elements.

While the cloud effect is similar to the Torid, the clouds are smaller and can sometimes spread between enemies.

In addition to two arrows being fired off at once when using Split Chamber, two toxin spores will also be fired at whatever the arrows hit.

Similarly to other projectile weapons, Mutualist Cernos' arrows will rag-doll enemies on kill, carrying their impaled bodies forward and dealing collateral damage to enemies in the flight path.

The Mutalist Cernos is ill suited for stealth missions, as enemies that are damaged by lingering toxin clouds will be immediately alerted to the Tenno's presence.

Multiple toxin clouds can be a hindrance as they may obscure the player's vision.

Spore clouds' continuous damage aids in taking down Nullifier and Arctic Eximus shields faster compared to other bows, on top of dealing direct damage to the shielded enemy's health.

Any arrow that procs Thunderbolt's explosion will not result in a spore being fired; it is therefore inadvisable to use Thunderbolt with Mutalist Cernos, as it negates a key element of the weapon's DPS.

Mods that add sufficient Punch Through will often result in the spore landing well behind a targeted enemy. While this may allow the Mutalist Cernos to deal with cameras, turrets, and other stationary destructibles or objects from behind obstructions, it is suggested that such mods be avoided, as the downsides far outweigh the usefulness of such.

Unlike the Torid's projectile, the toxic spores will attach to a Nullifier bubble (or Arctic Eximus Globe) at the point of impact, continuously applying damage and shrinking the bubble. This makes the bow an efficient means of combating Nullifiers in Bow-only Sorties.

In regards to Riven Mods, the Mutalist Cernos is considered separate from the rest of the Cernos family and cannot use Cernos Rivens; they must be specifically for the Mutalist Cernos.